Item A: Workshop-City Hall Complex

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BACKGROUND The police department is a dynamic municipal function providing an essential city service to a growing community. It is important to understand how the current police facilities evolved over time and to plan for the flexibility to adapt to future changes (see Attachment B: Map of current police functions and locations). The existing Eugene City Hall was completed and fully occupied in 1964, housing the majority of city staff including the Eugene Police Department. The building was planned to accommodate police functions for ten years, with the intent to move police to a dedicated police facility in the mid-1970’s to accommodate growth for other city departments in City Hall. The original plan for a comprehensive new facility for all police functions was not realized due to funding challenges. An added cost consideration in the last decade is increased building code requirements for newly constructed “Essential Service Facilities”—such as hospitals, fire stations, and police buildings—which are significantly more expensive to build than standard buildings. Because the code requirements only apply to newly constructed “Essential Service” buildings, the police are allowed to remain in their current location even if it results in operational inefficiencies and hazards due to City Hall’s structural vulnerability in the event of an earth- quake. Since the construction of the existing City Hall, the city’s population has tripled and the other city staff has grown proportionately. The city managed this growth by incrementally occupying space in other existing buildings and by constructing facilities as funding allowed. Patrol and other police functions currently occupy approximately two-thirds of City Hall and space in seven other buildings in Eugene. Other city departments occupy the remaining space in City Hall and space in nine other buildings throughout downtown. For police, the dispersed condition can be considered positive as it supports the trend toward community policing. While the Police Department has seen modest personnel increments, recent independent stud- ies commissioned by the Police Department indicate significant understaffing, partly due to staffing cuts in the 1980’s during an economic recession. The studies suggest that significant increases to police staffing levels are necessary to achieve Eugene’s crime reduction and com- munity policing goals. Growth projections identified in the City Hall Space Needs study were performed in the spring of 2006 and reflect a smaller increase in staffing than suggested in the independent studies. Currently, the City has not made a formal budgetary commitment to any staffing plan. For this reason, consultants will continue to plan for a modest increase in police staffing sufficient to support community policing. When population and corresponding Police Department staffing growth reach a point where sig- nificant expansion is required, the department will likely move to a precinct model with multiple patrol facilities. This could entail some reorganization of police functions housed in patrol facili- ties, and facility development now should plan for the flexibility to accommodate some future growth and organizational changes. PROPOSED CONFIGURATION The consultant team studied multiple scenarios for how to integrate police functions with muni- cipal government, balancing the unique operational needs and cost impacts of a police facility with the needs of a new City Hall. Considerations for whether to consolidate all police functions into a new City Hall included: Page 2 of 7